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LONDON - Thousands of motorists across Britain have paid fraudsters to sit their driving test for them, raising serious concerns over road safety, a government agency said.
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA), which runs the test system, said it had launched 1200 investigations, with some suspects sitting hundreds of tests before being arrested.
Fraudsters charge learner drivers hundreds of pounds to take their test, passing themselves off as the person pictured on a provisional licence.
"It's been a growing problem for about the last three years, but it still affects less than 1 per cent of all the tests we do," a DSA spokeswoman said.
The DSA organises two million driving tests each year. The current pass rate is 42 per cent.
The head of the DSA's anti-fraud team, Andy Rice, said the scam could put the public at risk and must be stopped. "There are potentially tens of thousands of people on the road who shouldn't be driving," he said.
Last week, two men from Oldham were convicted of supplying illegal driving licences. Shazad Akhtar, 34, was sentenced to 200 hours' community service after pleading guilty to 22 counts of obtaining and attempting to obtain driving licences by deception.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 38, was fined £200 ($520) after admitting one charge of the same offence.
Police said learner drivers paid Akhtar up to £2000 ($5210) to sit their tests.
- REUTERS
